Bedetti, Atassi & Purvis – May 2018

Gaby Bedetti traded art and words with Meredith Purvis and Samir Atassi. Gaby shared this untitled image with Meredith:

In response, Meredith wrote this poem:

Pause

It is afternoon. Or
is it morning?

The sun held and glowing
somewhere in between.

There is a waiting, a
stillness, but also

the quiet coil and twitch
of muscles, poised.

This breeze slips
across whiskers.

A hint, nothing more, of
what comes next.

* * * * *

Samir shared this poem with Gaby:

What Fall Leaves

I will always keep. The farmer’s scythe sweeps
down the corn to be sheaved. The fall lights
tiny campfires in our teeth, leaves us
to navigate fields by their glow. The fall
leaves our shadows as
one shadow
that plays on the side of the barn, the farm at dusk
its form. It leaves postcards of its heart
tattooed on the skins of trees, encircling the wobbly
initials of its disciples. The fall leaves these picto-
grams burning with returns, as fawns
test out their new legs
and the tractor slumps its shoulders
in the ditch, vowing to beat rust. It leaves
us behind
as slippers of smoke step from chimneys’ lips, smudging
the air with sooty footprints. It leaves the house
puffing silently through the night, an old man
with his pipe, asleep like a covered cage, baby logs
burning in his dreams, ten last wishes
inside his mouth.

In response, Gaby made this image, entitled “Burning Leaf”: